On another topic, two responders commented that they had tried unsuccessfully to recruit testers living in the UK, even after offering to pay for their tests.
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In behalf of our Acree Surname Project last year, following careful research, I wrote, via international mail, twenty men with variants of our surname who currently live in historic Lancashire, England, requesting them to test for two specific Y-SNPs at YSEQ, leading to proven lineages. We offered not only to pay for their testing ($40 total), but, as further inducement, to arrange for anonymous testing if they desired, using myself as an intermediary.
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None of the men replied, even to decline. I thought that I had written a nice letter, expressing gratitude for their consideration of our request; but it was totally disregarded.
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I can¡¯t blame them. It would have been entirely for our Project¡¯s benefit--finding crucial matches in a specific geographic area to gratify would-be, distant relatives across the Atlantic. ?There was absolutely nothing in it for them, particularly since the highly-specific testing, if the two Y-SNP tests both proved negative, would not have gained them alternative matches.
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From our perspective, it was high stakes and a disappointing failure. Success may well have added a couple hundred years to the alternative lineages.
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While it¡¯s possible that men living in the UK have become increasingly wary of DNA testing, for whatever reason, I derive no general lesson here and can only blame myself for being insufficiently convincing in soliciting a favor from strangers.
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Charles Acree, Administrator, Acree Surname DNA Project ?
Charles Acree